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Commitment and technique

A recent post by Seth Godin talks about how we often waste time teaching people things they’re not really committed to learning.

We might teach someone the techniques that will make them good at flute, or C++, or soccer, he says, “but most people don’t want to commit until after they’ve discovered that they can be good at something.”

His solution is to teach commitment first. Because then they’ll stick to it.

The Churning sees it slightly differently. The Churning says that people can’t commit until after they know what they want to be good at. Once they know that, then they will know whether flute or C++ or soccer is important for them, and whether to commit or not.

The Churning says that if there’s a commitment problem then it’s because what people don’t how what they are learning will contribute to who they are and what they want in their life. So the solution is not to “teach people to commit.” The solution is to bring each person to have enough self-knowledge that they can decide for themselves whether they want to commit or not. To teach each person to know what they are looking for, what touches their inner being, their soul. What their purpose and values are and what it will take for them to live a worthwhile life.

Once they know that, then they can decide for themselves, what to commit to and what to let go.

Inner Leadership is a set of tools for finding who we are, what we care about, how to put that into practice, inspiringly.

“E-ducation,” after all, means “drawing out” what is already inside the person — not teaching them to commit to things that don’t feed their soul.